HAPPENINGS TEN YEARS TIME AGO
April 23 to 29, 1997
Aerosmith's record label, Sony, are forced to issue an apology to the American Hindu Anti-Defamation Coalition, after complaints over the artwork for the group's album, Nine Lives. The original sleeve, swiftly replaced, featured a doctored image of Krishna which depicted the Hindu deity with a cat's head and wearing a skirt.
Great, gritty, noir-ish French thriller from '82, a controversial sensation in its homeland. Writer/director Bob Swain (an American who'd lived in Paris for 20 years) casts Richard Berry as the undercover cop who uses informers to bust pimps. He presses prostitute Nathalie Baye to betray the alpha gangster. The climactic action recalls The French Connection.
Jim jarmusch's imminent set of dryly comic vignettes, filmed over the course of a decade, will pitch him to a new generation, as it features Jack and Meg White, Wu-Tang Clan (RZA scored Jarmusch's last film, Ghost Dog) and Steve Coogan among its cast. One of the better sequences sees Tom Waits and Iggy Pop mock-bickering over who's more famous, and both contribute to this studiously cool soundtrack.
In the dismal history of Rolling Stones '60s catalogue reissues, this is a first of sorts. This time, ABKCO... Universal... whoever... haven't got it completely wrong. Collected here, in their original European/US sleeves, are the thrashing, screaming baby Stones' first dozen 45s, including the three classic British EPs. Welcome as this is and despite the pretty sleeves, the '60s singles are far more conveniently housed in the long available Singles Collection.
